Here at last is a product that many of you have been asking for: 1:1250 scale decals for airplane models. Navalis has just released four sets of them: (1) U.S. pre-war and WW II, (2) U.S. post-war, (3) British and French Aero-Navale, and (4) Japanese, German and Russian. Each group has decals repeated in graduated sizes so that both small single-engine and large multi-engine planes can be done.

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US1[1].JPG (205577 bytes) RYALFRE[1].JPG (236005 bytes)

The quality of the art work is excellent and the large number decals on each sheet allows the modeler to do squadrons from just one sheet alone, which is important in this scale. These are very good features.

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MIX[1].JPG (73667 bytes) US2[1].JPG (171551 bytes)

Unfortunately in some sets, such as the British/French the insignia appear too large to use on anything smaller than a SWORDFISH or multi-engine plane. This is especially true of the British Pacific Fleet 1944-45 markings. The German and U.S. insignia, except for the U.S. pre-war, appear to be too large to use on most if not all fighter aircraft, but are perfect for single-engine bombers like SBDs, TBMs and SB2Cs. The largest of the insignias are probably too large for anything except the biggest aircraft built. Few of the insignia are small enough to be used on the sides of planes, except on larger multi-engine planes. The Japanese insignia appear to be small enough to use on all planes, except perhaps on the sides of carrier size planes. It would have been nice to have modern U.S. low-viz insignia on the post war sheet, but that could be the subject of an entirely separate sheet, which I am sure would sell well. In spite of these drawbacks, or perhaps the better word is omissions, the decals are definitely of tremendous value to modelers.

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navalis 4Stuka.jpg (23395 bytes) Navalis 3TBM.jpg (129015 bytes)

No decal sheet on the market meets every possible need, and these are no exception. But these provide a good deal of coverage. There is simply nothing else like this available on the market today, and the only alternative is hand painting your own, or laboriously constructing them from various other decal sets on the market. None of those alternatives is as effective as these decal sets are. My recommendation is this: anyone who is collecting 1:1200 or 1:1250 scale planes should buy these sets. They can be obtained directly from Navalis. The cost per sheet is US $8.00.

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